Corrupt in Mind, Corrupt in Form
by Turquoisephoenix
Summary: ONESHOT. A person is accused of something he isn't responsible for and must suffer the harshest punishment of all: banishment and the loss of everything he holds dear to him.


Corrupt in Mind, Corrupt in Form  
Rating: PG  
Author's Notes: One-Shot. This is just a little weird thing I happen to believe really happened before the Spyro games. I own nothing in this story except for the idea and Jeremy.

* * *

Ten years before the birth of the legendary Spyro the Dragon, a trial took place in the Artisan home world.

"Jeremy Freeman. You stand accused of committing a crime most heinous against the dragon folk. Do you plea innocence or guilt?" Dragon Elder Titan droned. Dragon trials were a lot different from the trials on Earth. They were shorter in length, as the one guilty stood before only a jury consisting of only five Dragon Elders and one representative of each race of dragon, and it was there and then that they considered the evidence, decided whether or not he was guilty or innocent, and then carried out the punishment right then and there.

A young human stood before the Dragon Elder Titan. He was rather unimpressive, barely older then the age of twenty, but all the dragons glared at him as if he was going to kill them all once they let their guard down. The boy struggled against his chains like a wild animal displayed before a zoo. This only annoyed the dragons, as the black-scaled guard standing next to him grabbed a handful of his dirty brown hair and forced him to be still. Even with the daggerlike claws wrapped around his scalp, the boy struggled.

"Are you willing to stand still for a couple of minutes to prove yourself innocent, or do you want us to carry out your sentence right at this instant?" Titan barked with finality in his voice. At this moment of time, Titan wasn't a senile old bat that lived a sheltered life in the Clouded Realms, but instead was a well-traveled keeper of the peace, much like the Peace Keeper Leader with the same name.

Jeremy, as if finally realizing that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, sighed and started to reply before the judge. "Fine. Even though I shouldn't be-"

"Yes you should, human. You have been caught performing illegal magic stolen by the Beast Makers to create monsters to serve you!" A dragon in the jury cut the boy's plea off. It was a crimson-scaled dragon with yellow eyes, purple horns, and yellow webbing on his wings. Jeremy's eyes narrowed when he spotted the dragon whom spoke.

"He's the one that made those monsters! Not me, him!" The boy cried. He pointed his finger at the dragon, but to his surprise, the rest of the jury didn't react. In fact, they were disgusted at the fact that a human would dare accuse a gentle dragon of such a thing.

"You dare accuse Red the Dragon Elder of such an act of treachery?" Titan gasped. Murmurs of astonishment rose from the rest of the dragons. Jeremy was very firm with his case, despite the fact that there was no one to believe him.

"I'm not accusing. I'm telling the truth. I saw him use magic stolen from the Beast Makers to turn gems into gnorcs."

A collective gasp rose from the jury, but not because they were seeing their mistake. Up until this moment of time, the awful offspring between an orc and a gnome were nothing more then a fairy tale used to put young hatchlings to sleep. Red walked out of the group of fellow Dragon Elders and grinned when Jeremy saw his horrible mistake of speaking their name out loud.

"So, they're called gnorcs then." Red hissed. He turned to his fellow Dragon Elders and placed a hand on his chest in a gesture of humility.

"_I_ certainly didn't know the name of them." He replied bluntly. He paced back in forth in front of the jury and Jeremy and explained. "Now, if _I _was the maker of these monsters, then I would certainly know their names. When I saw Mr. Jeremy bring them to life, I just thought that they were monsters and that's that. I didn't know that Jeremy was creating the very monsters that have haunted our legends for thousands of generations!" To emphasize his point, he pointed a claw at the human chained behind him.

"This human made an entire army of gnorcs exist and he must be punished!"

Every dragon present howled in agreement. Red smiled smugly at his obvious popularity advantage over the prisoner.

"You did know their names, you liar. You spoke their name out loud when you were reciting the spell. You said specifically: 'Unholy creatures from gnome and orc, rise from the gems and turn to-"

**_SLAP!_**

Red backhanded the defendant. Jeremy bit his lip to keep himself from crying out. He will not show any weakness in front of these dragons. He looked up at Dragon Elder Titan and noticed that he was smiling. Titan would rather believe a Dragon Elder that was obviously lying to him than a human telling the truth. The cold truth that none of the Dragon Elders would defend him hurt him more than his stinging cheek. Jeremy slumped to his knees and let his chains clank dully at his sides.

"It is you that is the liar, you pitiful human!" Red hissed, not bothering to call the defendant by name. "Only a human would go to deepest swamps of the Beast Makers to dig up such a spell. Only a human would make an army of said monsters to bring the Dragon Elders to their knees. Only a human would accuse a noble dragon of such a heinous crime."

'_And only a human would sneak into my cave while I'm performing the spell and try to tell a fellow Dragon Elder. They won't believe you. They only believe me. You're saddled with the responsibility of those useless gnorcs that I've created, and I get off Scott-free!' _

The words were unspoken, and yet Jeremy heard them. The sight of that crimson scaled dragon standing before him, grinning that awkward grin of his and relieving himself of the crimes that he committed angered the young man so much that he lunged for the dragon's throat.

Red chuckled when Jeremy was held back by the two guard dragons at his side.

"See, my fellow Dragon Elders? He attacks the one that brought him to this trial because he lacks the ability to see the truth. He blames me for his crimes. That alone should make his punishment even worse than what it already is."

"I agree, Red. I find Jeremy Freeman guilty for creating gnorcs with the restricted magic of the Beast Makers. For his punishment, he is to receive banishment to the Dragon Wasteland and-" Titan was unable to finish his sentence. Red had the misfortune of stepping a little too close to Jeremy in his satisfaction of winning the case. The human expertly wrapped the chain connecting his two hands together around the base of Red's neck. Dragon Elder Red fell to his knees and started to choke.

Fortunately for Red, the two guard dragons clubbed Jeremy in the head with the blunt of their swords before he could kill the real creator of the gnorcs. With a strangled cry, the boy slumped to the ground and lost consciousness. It didn't help matters at all that the last words he heard happened to be Red speaking.

"I suggest we carry out the first half of the punishment right here, right now. This human doesn't deserve the most precious possession he owns..."

* * *

When Jeremy Freeman woke up, he was facedown on some kind of cold rock floor. With a groan, he pushed himself into a sitting position and examined his surroundings. He was in a small cell that consisted of one barred window and a worn-out cot, and judging from the architecture, he was in the legendary prison the Peace Keepers maintained in Dry Canyon. The Dragon Elders must've tossed him in here after he tried to murder Red the dragon. Jeremy grinned to himself when he remembered how close he was to snapping Red's neck. He moved his head, causing a sharp pain to drive itself into his skull. He placed a hand to his wound. 

"Urgh...My-" Jeremy stopped himself. His voice tumbled out of his mouth awkwardly. It didn't sound right to him somehow. "Head?" He tested his voice again, and once again it didn't sound right. Something had altered it so that it was different from the one he grew up with.

"Did the dragons add another punishment besides banishment? The alteration of my voice?" Jeremy shouted to the night sky. Several of the other captives, most of them rule-breaking dragons, told him to shut up, but he didn't listen to them. His voice was no longer a pleasant tenor, but rather a rather gruff baritone. "What else did they do?"

"I can explain that, Jeremy." A voice came from down the hallway. A feral growl rose from Jeremy's throat when he saw that his visitor was Red. Red's neck was bruising in the area where he was attacked, but other then that, he still radiated with an aura of faux authority. He moved closer to the dragon responsible for his imprisonment, but he found moving difficult as the Peace Keepers had chained him to the wall tightly.

"Red. What did they do to my voice? Is this some kind of joke?" Jeremy asked.

"Your voice isn't the only thing that's changed, silly human." Red said casually as he banged his staff against the bars. The Light Gem on his staff glew brightly, providing a source of light for the dragon. He looked into Jeremy's face, made a grimace, and added snidely,

"Or should I say silly gnorc?"

The prisoner was taken aback by this word. Gnorc? How could he be a gnorc? From what he witnessed that day he accidentally tumbled into Red's cave just as the dragon was creating gnorcs from a spell book, gnorcs could only be created with gems.

"Gnorc? What are you talking about?"

"Your punishment, Jeremy. The Beast Maker's code clearly states that any illegal use of Beast Maker magic in the most severe form results in the user to be turned into the species of creature he was making with that magic and the automatic banishment to the Dragon Wasteland." Red quoted. He flashed a toothy draconic grin at the one suffering his punishment.

"And believe me. I'm so glad that I'm not in your shoes. After all, no human wants to lose the most precious gift they possess; their humanity." Red stated. In the dragon realms, humans, although much smaller in number than on Earth, often boasted about their morals. To the short-lived hairless apes, nothing was more special to them than actually being human, as humans were often the only creatures that had the know-how behind the more intricate machinery.

And Jeremy was no different. "You're lying. Tell me you're lying. I can't be a gnorc. The magic only works on gems and inanimate objects!"

Red found the boy's panic amusing. "Correction: The magic only works on gems and inanimate objects unless you have enough magic to use it on animate objects. Titan, Tomas, Magnus, Astor, and moi all used our magic to turn _your_ magic against you." With a cold-hearted snicker, Red slid a mirror into Jeremy's cell.

"See for yourself. I must say, the magic made you into something more handsome than a human. Never did like your race, Jeremy. What with its lack of scales, that ever strange tuft of fur growing on its head, and those little clawless appendages you call hands and feet."

The prisoner hesitantly reached for the mirror. His gaze fell on his outstretched arm. A scream of fright tore from his mouth instantly when he saw that his arm was green, bulging with muscles, and a lot bigger then when he saw it last. Every drop of blood in his body turned to ice when he held up his hand to his face. His fingers were fat, green, and were tipped with blunt yellow claws. Jeremy was very close to losing his mind when he wiggled his fingers and confirmed that they were his.

"This is a joke, right?"

"It is for me. I really do love the justice system we Dragon Elders use to punish big-mouthed fools like you. Since I passed the test of the Dragon Elders, they automatically assume that I tell the truth and anyone that accuses me of anything different is the one that's lying. In other words, instead of me as green, smelly, and UGLY as you, I get to watch as an innocent suffers the irreversible punishment." Red explained.

"IRREVERSIBLE?" Jeremy shouted, his voice laced with pure panic. With his new voice, the word echoed off the walls of the desert prison. "But...but...every spell is reversible!"

"'But, but, every spell is reversible!'" Red mocked the tone of voice Jeremy adopted during his argument. "Not this one. Another part of the Beast Maker code lists a way to make any changes to a shape permanent. You wouldn't want any lizards to suddenly turn back intoglops of dirtjust by walking too close to a Light Gem, now would you?"

"You mean, I'm going to be a gnorc for the rest of my life? I didn't even create that army of monsters!" Jeremy struggled with his bonds so that he could point at Red. "You did! You brought those hybrids of orc and gnome into this world, but-"

"I'm not in that cage in that form!" Red finished his statement for him. The Dragon Elder turned to walk away from the cell. After all, he still had his job and his life even though he clearly shouldn't.

"In the morning you're going to be saying hello to your new home in the Dragon Wasteland, so I suggest that you get a good night's sleep. You're lucky the council didn't decide to execute you for trying to kill me. And since the Dragon Wasteland is lacking in clear water, you might as well look at your face before the guards extinguish the torches for the night." And with that, the Dragon Elder Red exited the prison and left the Peace Keepers' realms.

Jeremy didn't even watch to see the person that made him this way go. Once again, he reached for the mirror. He turned his head away from the sight of his arm and his hand. '_This is unfair. All I did was walk into the wrong cave at the wrong time and now I'm awaiting the banishment to some wasteland in a body that isn't mine.'_

The human-turned-gnorc took a deep breath, lifted the mirror to his face, and opened his eyes. Jeremy's heart nearly stopped when he saw the monster he had become staring back at him. Nothing in his face was recognizable anymore. It had all been twisted into a living nightmare. He now had an animal-like snout with two fangs protruding from his bottom lip, beady eyes set underneath a heavy brow that could frighten anyone senseless, and ears like that of a goblin. Nothing about him was human anymore.

With a wordless scream of agony, Jeremy tossed the mirror at the wall and watched it smash into pieces.

"This isn't happening!" The prisoner shouted to himself. He tried every method to dislodge himself from the nightmare he was living. He tried opening and closing his eyes, but instead of being safe in bed, he was still trapped in the desert prison. He tried pinching himself, but his claws broke the skin and he noticed that his blood was a darker shade of red then before. It was useless. The Beast Makers did a fine job of mutating him, and now there was no going back.

As the banished prisoner let his punishment sink in, the guards on patrol that night were lucky enough to hear a sound no one in the Dragon Realms would ever hear again.

The sound of a gnorc weeping.

* * *

In the years that followed Jeremy's banishment, none of the dragons ever spoke about the gnorc-like creature. 

The day of his banishment was rather uneventful, as none of his friends or family bade him farewell, and none of the dragons saw an intelligent gnorc as a threat at that period of time. That day was memorable nonetheless, as Red was later found guilty for another crime involving an untamed magic called the Dark Gems a few days following the banishment...

Since no dragons were foolhardy enough to journey to the Dragon Wasteland except to banish criminals, they automatically assumed that Jeremy, like all the other creatures that were banished, would perish from the horrible conditions in the one world the dragons didn't care for.

They were wrong.

As time passed by, the human-turned gnorc grew very bitter of the life he was forced to live. In a pollution-belching world, surrounded by the entire army of gnorcs that Red created as his only companions, he changed as much on the inside as he had on the outside. When he first arrived at his new home, he had tried to keep as much clean as possible, but later he grew just as careless with cleanliness as the rest of his kind. Kind gestures were not practiced in the Dragon Wasteland, and slowly, Jeremy started to slip into an ever-lasting feeling of utter hatred.

As his hatred grew, so did his list of people to seek vengeance on. At first, Red was his only target. Then, it became all the Dragon Elders that had appeared at his trial. Slowly but surely, he started to hate all the dragons. He started to believe that the dragons were the source of all his trouble. They were able to live in a beautiful land, breathe in air unpolluted by foul toxins, and converse freely with other creatures without fear that they were ugly.

Ugly. He was ugly. The gnorc knew that for a fact every time he found a gem half-buried in the poisonous sand of the junkyard that was his home. The dragons' gems were designed in a way that they could never tarnish, so whenever he happened upon a gem, he would see his own reflection in the colorful jewel. Nothing frustrated him more then seeing his own flaws reflected back at him.

However, nothing thrilled him more then twisting those ever-beautiful gems and making monsters out of them. Learning from what he witnessed Red do in the past, the gnorc slowly bulked up the gnorc army that he was left with. He started to experiment with magic little by little. He made the gnorcs adapt to their surroundings by making them in all shapes and sizes. Monsters adapted for mountains, gnorcs adapted for desert regions, and imps that could survive in the high altitudes were given life at his fingertips. He even promoted his magical prowess by wearing armor that repelled against all dragon magic and by always carrying a staff that could double as a skull-smashing club wherever he went.

Jeremy didn't even think twice when the gnorcs started calling him not by his real name, but by a nastier title that better suited what he had become. He couldn't understand their strange language of grunts and growls, but the dragons did, and they knew exactly what the gnorcs were calling him.

Gnasty Gnorc.

* * *

One fateful day that would be remember forever in all the dragon legends, Jeremy stared deeply into the gossamer image before him. He was putting his magic to the test by making an image transporter, something that would allow him to see in every Dragon Realm. As he muttered the magical words, a picture presented itself before him. It was the Artisans' world, and the press was interviewing two dragons. 

Jeremy wanted to shout out in glee, as his magic was getting so powerful that he was able to see what was going on in another realm, but instead he listened in on their conversation. He wasn't sure if the portal projected his voice as well, and he didn't want to risk revealing his presence to the ones that turned him into...what he was now.

"Oh, it's been peaceful here in the five worlds, or is it six, for a dragon's age. We now have twelve thousand treasures, or is it fourteen thousand?" The old dragon droned. The gnorc almost chuckled at how senile the reptile was. Still, the dragon's voice came out loud and clear as if he was viewing them through a television. Practicing with magic really did pay off for him.

"What about this Gnasty Gnorc caricature? Now, I understand he's found a magic spell to turn gems into warriors for his cause."

_'Gnasty Gnorc?' _The two words were almost foreign to him. Who was this Gnasty Gnorc creature? He knew what a gnorc was, as they were now occupying the same realm that he was banished to, but who was the nastiest gnorc of- 

The truth hit him, much harder than when Red had slapped him in front of the Dragon Elders and they approved of his action. The dragons stripped him of his humanity and reduced him into some sort of a monster. He was in the wasteland of the dragon realms. He was much bigger and much more intelligent than the rest of the gnorcs.

He looked at a gnorc that was excitedly chirping the same two grunts that he's been hearing for a while now. The reluctant leader of the gnorcs, despite living with them for over twenty years, could never pick up on the many unintelligent grunts and growls the gnorcs spoke with. He taught a few of them to speak English, but they always called him Master...

Therefore, the Gnasty Gnorc the dragons were talking about was him. He wasn't Jeremy anymore to the dragons. To them, he was the nastiest of the gnorcs.

He was Gnasty Gnorc.

'Is that what they're calling me now? They don't even call me "Jeremy the Banished One" or some stupid name like that! They think I'm a gnorc!'

He remembered the smug look on Red's face as the rest of the Dragon Elders goaded him into the Dragon Realms' junkyard. He then remembered Red speaking to him when he woke up in the prison cell in the Peace Keeper's prison. With a sigh of defeat, Jeremy corrected himself. '_Not think. Know. They know I'm a gnorc. That's what I've become. My punishment for supposedly creating them is becoming one myself...'_

That single fact was so painful to him that he screamed like a wounded bear. He was about to punch the wall behind him when he heard what the dragon being interviewed had to say about him.

"I'll take that question. Gnasty Gnorc is a simple creature."

Gnasty Gnorc always was a sensitive person, even though he was in a body of a creature that clearly should stand to hear a couple insults. That's one of the main reasons why every gem in Gnasty's World had been turned into some kind of monster.

'Simple? Creature? Those dragons already forgot the reason as to why I'm here?' he thought to himself, but the only word that came out was,

"Simple?"

The dragon didn't hear him thankfully, but continued on with the hurtful insults.

"He's been contained in a remote world and is no threat to the dragon kingdom..."

_'Correction. I wasn't a threat before. You dragons had to believe Red's lies and I had to suffer!'_ Gnasty thought while gritting his teeth.

"No threat?"

Gnasty Gnorc, after living for more then twenty years in the Dragon Junkyard, was more than a little peeved that the dragons were insulting him instead of taking him seriously. They spoke about Red the Fallen Dragon Elder with respect and with hushed voices. Why didn't they do the same to him?

"Besides, he's ugly."

That insult was the worst of them all. Gnasty Gnorc hated the fact he was ugly, and hated it even more when other creatures brought it up in conversation. _'What?' _Angry tears flowed unheeded from his eyes. Gnasty hated that word so much that he executed anybody within his world that even spoke the word. _'They made me this way!'_

"Ugly?"

All the raw fury that had built up over the course of the years flowed through his veins. Magic electricity pulsed at his fingertips and towards his weapon that doubled both as a club and as a staff.

'I'll make them pay!'

"That does it!"

The creature that was once Jeremy Freeman roared a war cry like a savage animal and fired a spell into the five dragon realms. He watched as the spell did its work in the Artisans' homeland, and he felt quite pleased with himself.

'_Now those dragons are beautifully incased in glistening gemstone for all eternity. A real end fit for a dragon_.' Gnasty thought happily for the first time in two decades. That is, until he saw a very small dragonling dodge the spell. The little creature, which had just woken up from an afternoon nap, looked at all of Gnasty's creations with raw fear. Purple scales glistened in the sun as the terrified young dragon glanced at his peers who were now sealed in stone.

"Nestor? Astor? What happened to you?" The young creature that would later be known as Spyro the Dragon cried in fright. Tears brimmed in those dark purple eyes when he saw gnorcs, who had escaped through a portal at the same time the spell was fired, steal the dragon treasure and scatter it throughout the Artisan realms.

"Wait! Come back! Don't take my race's gems!" Spyro shouted. Gnasty Gnorc's vision flickered out of existence, cutting off any further sights of the little would-be hero. The gnorc, despite his confidence and anger before, was trembling. He wasn't afraid of the dragon as much as what he had become. Somehow, seeing that young dragon, who had never done any harm to him and was the most terrified by his attack, had jarred him back to his senses for the first time in over twenty years.

"What have I done?" He said to no one in particular. There were no gnorcs running around at his feet anymore. From what he saw, the spell also triggered some sort of gnorc rebellion among the dragon folk. Were Red's creations reeking havoc on the five realms?

_'No, not Red's creations.'_ Gnasty reminded himself._ 'I had to be corrupted with all that jealousy and hatred that I too created those monsters.'_ Suddenly, all those nights spent muttering over piles of glittering gems felt like a waste. What was he trying to prove all those nights ago? Did monsters like Blowhard and Dr. Shemp really need to exist in order for the dragons to see that he wasn't just some stupid, ugly gnorc they banished to the Dragon Wastelands?

"Correction. Gnasty's World."Gnasty Gnorc reminded himself. "I was so angry at those dragons that I had to make my own realm and my own army just to prove myself. I made those gnorcs build hateful dragon statues. I made them learn exactly what weapons killed a dragon and blocked against their attacks. I even made myself learn exactly how to kill a dragon..."

The realization came to him very fast. It was the one thing that set him apart from Ripto and any other villains to the peace; he had a conscience.

"And now, some poor little dragon child is suffering and it's all my fault!" Gnasty shouted. A glitter caught his eye. One of the gnorcs that was tending to his every whim had dropped a gem that they had found in the wasteland. Gnasty gazed as his reflection, as always hating the image that stared back at him. However, unlike all those other times, he didn't turn this gem into some sort of bloodthirsty warrior.

'_I don't just look like a monster...' _Gnasty Gnorc pondered as he looked again at his reflection. He saw all those bone-crushing muscles in his arms, those claws and fangs, and those eyes full of no regrets of any rude actions he did. For twenty years, he let himself believe that he was more civilized then the dragons. But in reality, he was hiding himself from the truth up until this very day.

I _am_ a monster

And with those words, Gnasty Gnorc trudged to his throne room and awaited the incoming showdown against Spyro the Dragon.

* * *

The End.  
Or is it?

My Author's Notes will be explained as such:

1. I feel that Red turned to the dark side much earlier then Gnasty did and that he was involved with the "creation" of Gnasty Gnorc, but he also had to be corrupted as well. No person is simply born evil after all. A Red evil origin story would've been fun to write, but I just felt like I owed Gnasty Gnorc a fic. I've grown to love the gnorc almost as much as Ripto.

2. Despite what other sites say, I think that Gnasty Gnorc is younger than Red. Red was a Dragon Elder for a reason. Also, there's the fact that dragons live a long time. You get the idea.

3. I really do believe that Gnasty is not really all that evil. I mean, his reason for attacking the dragons was simply because he hated his own appearance and he was jealous/angry of the dragons. And then there was A Hero's Tail, where he becomes a lowly lackey before Red. And even when he confronted Spyro, he wasn't all that mean until he started to lose. "You did? Wow, I guess it has been a long time..." could've just as easily been "I did win! How dare you disagree, dragon!".

4. Oh, and before anyone says, Gnasty Gnorc isn't stupid. I hate it when people assume that.

5. Spyro's lines are different because I didn't really like how Spyro responded in the opening cutscene of Spyro 1. "Looks like I've got things to do", Spyro? You just witnessed your adult peers turn into statues and a bunch of monsters are littering the countryside. Why are you confident? Shouldn't you just be a little worried?

I guess I could write a separate chapter explaining why Gnasty sided with Red during A Hero's Tail. I mean, judging from the bad stuff spoken by Red, neither of them like each other all that much...

* * *

Reviews appreciated, flames are not. I like feedback of any kind, and I promise I won't bite if you give constructive criticism. Just don't ask WHY I wrote this. I mean, if everyone can assume that Red and Ripto were nice before, then why not Gnasty? 


End file.
